Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Olympian goddess of love Although often spiteful and selfish, and very immature at times (as shown with her feuds with Discord and her son, Cupid), the influence of her half-brother Hercules and her friendships with mortals such as Iolaus, Xena and Gabrielle leads her character in some surprising directions. Relationships Aphrodite treats Hercules as her protective older brother, affectionately referring to him as "Big Bro" (a physical description, given that she was millennia older than he) and was probably the closest to him of all the Olympians. She frequently took his advice and assisted him on his adventures. Although she was manipulating him during their initial encounter, Aphrodite eventually became friends with Iolaus, Hercules's most frequent ally. Xena and Gabrielle often found themselves entangled in gone of Aphrodite's hare-brained schemes, though their relationship with her improved to the point where the goddess was even willing to stand up to Athena on their behalf. She was also quite close to her brother Ares, largely due to the connection they shared. Aphrodite literally goes insane when Ares loses his godhood, as War and Love must exist in cosmic balance. In spite of her affection for Ares, Aphrodite has no time for his flunkies, in particular, Discord, with whom she shares an almost adolescent rivalry. Aphrodite's relationship with her son Cupid is generally strained for a variety of reasons, her over-protectiveness and the fact that she was his boss and his mother being chief among them. Like many Olympians, Aphrodite occasionally has trysts with mortals. Two children produced from such couplings are Deon and Aeneas. She also has children with Ares (Deimos) and Hermes (Fortune). Story Before her tryst with Hephaestus takes place she is portrayed as being a bit promiscuous: she steals a boyfriend away from Hera and because of that Hera places a curse on her son Cupid. Cupid falls in love with a girl named Psyche, who is said to be more beautiful than Aphrodite, which makes her extremely jealous. Out of jealousy, Aphrodite tries to shoot a love arrow at Psyche, when Cupid tries to stop her Hercules is accidentally hit and falls in love with Psyche. Thanks to Hera's curse, Cupid literally turns into a green-eyed monster with jealousy at the thought of losing Psyche. The curse is eventually lifted when the truth comes after he confesses his love for Psyche and she marries him. Aphrodite gives Psyche Ambrosia to make her a goddess to make amends since she is the one who started the mess. Although she soon realizes she is now a mother-in-law, which does not make her very happy. She becomes a grandmother later on when Psyche and Cupid have a son, Bliss. On Hercules, Aphrodite is usually the comic relief or the viewers' window into the politics of Mount Olympus. Though she is originally introduced as a scheming goddess, devious and almost as uncaring as Ares, she quickly evolves into a more benevolent fun-loving character, though still prone to mood swings. She is also the only member of his Olympian family apart from Zeus Hercules seems to have any sort of close relationship with (in one episode he refers to her as his favorite little sister, and is somewhat close to her son Cupid who refers to him as "Uncle Herc"), despite the trouble she seems to cause him. Aphrodite determines to break up a royal family marriage that will end a war, only because the newly allied kingdoms plan to destroy her temples. As her son Cupid explains to Gabrielle, "When the Goddess of Love decides to do something petty and spiteful, she can be a tad difficult to reason with." Powers As an Olympian goddess, Aphrodite possesses the normal range of abilities: immortality, enhanced stamina, reflexes, senses, agility, teleportation (in her case, vanishing in an explosion of small heart shapes), telekinesis, conjuration, regeneration, invisibility, intangibility, invincibility, fireballs, flying, magical shielding, time travel (restricted by order of Zeus), healing (restricted by order of Athena), switching souls from one body to another and shape-shifting. She also displayed an ability to generate an aura to prevent the soul of a worshiper from being taken to the Underworld for the span of one day- she is the only Olympian seen to display this ability, but it is possible that this is a perk any Olympian can use occasionally. As the Goddess of love, Aphrodite's particular power is to cause people to fall in love or be consumed by passion. This lovely goddess could also control the minds of her lovers when she had ever needed or wanted to. So Being the personification of Love, peace & Forgiveness Aphrodite is really a powerful Olympian Goddess with powers like her counterpart Ares. Immortality: '''Aphrodite has the ability to live infinite lifespan as well as immunity to all sorts of diseases. '''Invincibility: '''Aphrodite is invincible to all sorts of weapons (swords, axes, crossbows) as well as all magical powers from the Gods although these powers can hurt her but not kill her. '''Atmokinesis: '''All Olympians has the power to control and manipulate the weather bring out storms, tornadoes, rains, and Lightning. '''Healing: '''Aphrodite has the ability to heal wounds but she can't heal mortal wounds. Aphrodite, as well as the rest of the Gods, has to be blessed by Zeus Himself or Athena's blessings to do so. '''Amokinesis: '''Being the Goddess of Love Aphrodite has the ability to make Mortals fall in love as well as wanting lust and having sex & to be consumed by passion '''Teleportation: '''Aphrodite has the ability to teleport to any place whatever she sees fit either on earth or Olympus. '''Superhuman Strength: '''Aphrodite has a degree of super strength can send people flying as well as gods her strength was powerful enough to hurt Discord as well as lesser Gods. '''Pyrokinesis: '''Aphrodite has the power to shoot powerful Fire Balls capable of killing mortals and hurting Gods. '''lightning: '''All Gods has the ability to shoot lightning capable of killing mortal to hurting other Gods '''Time Manipulation: '''All Gods has the power to manipulate time by travel back & forward as well as freezing time itself but they need Zeus's consent first. '''Invisibility: '''All Gods have the power to make themselves invisible to all mortals they can't be seen or heard by them. '''Telekinesis: Aphrodite has the ability to move objects & mortals with her mind. Magical Shielding: 'Aphrodite has the power to create a Forcefield in a shape of a pink heart to deflect magical attacks away from her. '''Energy Blasts: '''Aphrodite has the power to shoot powerful Energy blast capable of killing mortals and hurting Gods. '''Deflection: '''Aphrodite's another ability to deflect attacks. '''Flying: '''Aphrodite has the ability to fly to anyplace she wants to be. '''Shapeshifting: '''Aphrodite has the ability to alter her appearance to take whatever form she Likes mortals or monsters or Gods. '''Intangibility: '''Aphrodite has the ability to make her self-intangible to all sorts of weapons as well all magical powers of the Gods. ' ''' '''Divine powers: '''Aphrodite has shown to possess powerful divine powers like. * '''Reality warping: Aphrodite has the power to manipulate reality able to do almost anything she wants. * Conjuration: '''Aphrodite has the power to conjure anything she wants like objects and beings * '''Shifting Souls to another body: '''Aphrodite has the ability to transfer souls into different Bodies. ' * '''Protection Aura: '''Aphrodite has the ability to put a yellowish Aura around a worshiper when he/she is Dead to prevent his soul to be taken to the underworld for the span of one day she is the only Goddess of all the Olympians to possess that kind of power. * '''Portal creation: '''Aphrodite has the power to create portals to other Dimensions as well as controlling the worlds she creates. * '''Mind control: '''Aphrodite has the power to control the mortals she bewitches with her magic to fall in love and do her bidding. * '''Magical Golden apple creation: '''With her powers Aphrodite created a golden apple whenever a man holds it to his heart any woman will fall hopelessly in love with him and if he and the woman he loves torches it at the same time they will be soulmates forever but its power is not absolute it has a limitation the man can't tell anyone about it if he does that no woman will ever want him again. if Aphrodite ever loses her Godly powers all mankind will lose the feeling and the ability to love and time after time they will despise each other, not just that Ares the God of War will also lose his Godly powers because War must be balanced with Love and vice versa. Gallery File:Aphrodite_apple.jpg|Aphrodite, in "The Apple" File:Animated_Aphrodite.jpg|Animated Aphrodite File:L_(1).jpg|Aphrodite aphroditeloveamazonsstyle.jpg|Aphrodite in "Love, Amazon Style" Background * Aphrodite is the second most frequently recurring character in the Xenaverse, after Ares. She appears in ten seasons across two shows; only Ares has appeared in more seasons. * Alexandra Tydings has short brunette hair. She was surprised and gratified to be cast as Aphrodite in spite of her brown locks... but then they showed her the wig she would be wearing. * Botticelli's famous painting ''The Birth of Venus, Aphrodite appears rising out of the sea in a giant seashell. In "The Apple", she appears the same way – and uses the seashell to go windsurfing. **She uses it again in Hercules & Xena - The Animated Movie: The Battle for Mount Olympus to surf, both on the ocean and down the slopes of Olympus. She later planned to hide in her shell if her "calming aura to neutralize the bad titan vibes" didn't work. Neither the aura nor the shell was successful. *In the earliest myths, Aphrodite was more specifically the goddess of sex and sexuality. For a family-friendly show, love generally was used. *In the Xenaverse, Zeus is explicitly Aphrodite's father and Hera is implicitly her mother. In myths where Zeus was Aphrodite's father, her mother was named Dione, a nymph or lesser goddess about whom little is known. The most well-known myths relate that Aphrodite was born from the severed genitals of Ouranos when Kronos castrated him. See Also * Cupid * Olympian * Old Woman * Aphrodite's apple de:Aphrodite Category:Characters Category:Children of Zeus Category:Olympians Category:Mothers Category:Grandmothers Category:Villains Category:Reformed villains Category:Motherhood images Category:Gods